Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Moving Parts

Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by godelski on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @02:46PM (#18505436)

I wouldn't expect to see this on passenger aircraft anytime soon. They even had to build light weight high voltage converters. There's also a lot of safety things involved when you're dealing with tens of kV (which in a big craft we're talking at lease MV). BUT these things could be used for silent drones. Think more spy type drones, not predator type drones.

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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by tener on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @03:41PM (#18505894)

There is a lot of safety stuff with the current design of the airplanes. If this is just simpler or had fewer parts that can break, it may still be a win.

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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by istjohn on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @04:33PM (#18506278)

I'm pretty sure the voltage wouldn't need to increase for a bigger aircraft. The current would increase as you ionize more nitrogen molecules, but the voltage required to tear away the electrons doesn't change.

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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by brian-armstrong on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @06:31PM (#18506898)

A bigger plane would need to ionise larger nitrogen molecules.

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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by alanbernstein on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @06:46PM (#18506958)

This is why jumbonium was invented.

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Re:Silent and Simple Ion Engine Powers a Plane with No Movin... by antonvs on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @10:44PM (#18507727)

Bad news for Airbus

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